


Loving the Distance

by neurolingual



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 08:01:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1078522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neurolingual/pseuds/neurolingual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because one simple message was all it took to spark a love that stretched overseas. (based off a tumblr au meme by reindeeregui)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

She said goodnight to her mother, waved to her father as she passed him lounging on the recliner, and kissed her younger sister on the forehead before making her way up the stairs, excitement pumping through her veins.

She all but sprinted down the hall and into her bedroom, throwing herself onto her mattress and retrieving her laptop from underneath her pillow. While waiting for her computer to boot up, she reached for her phone, answering a text and occupying her trembling fingers.

Her browser was open and loading Tumblr the minute her desktop screen had popped up. Worrying away at her bottom lip, she scrolled down the front page of the website, looking at the most recent posts, searching for one person's specific icon to pop up.

This wasn't stalking, technically. Camila just happened to know what times the girl was usually online every day.

But what was different about today, what had Camila's stomach rolling and her hands jittery, was that it was finally going to be the day where she swallowed her nerves and would send _her_ a message.

It had been something she contemplated doing for over a month, ever since she started following the girl, but her anxiety had always talked her out of it, creating scenarios such as _‘What if she never responds?’_ , _‘What if she just deletes my message?’_ , and _‘She's too pretty to reply to me’_. Camila had come close to messaging her before, but halfway through typing it, she decided that she sounded like a total rambling idiot and deleted the entire thing.

A faded icon caught her attention from her peripheral, and she felt her heart leap into her throat. She dragged her cursor to hover over the icon, managing a deep inhale before clicking down on her mouse.

The girl's blog popped up almost instantly, and Camila froze. Maybe she should just back out now, stick to lurking in the shadows and avoiding interaction.

_No_ , she shook her head. _You're not chickening out now. You can do this._

After a few clicks, the girl's inbox was centered on her screen, and Camila's fingers hovered just above her keyboard.

"Oh, God, what do I even say?" she asked herself aloud, nibbling down on her bottom lip. "Maybe I should start with my name or something?" She paused to think, and then typed something into the box, before shaking her head and deleting it all.

"That's so lame," Camila groaned. "Why am I so lame?"

Her phone buzzed next to her elbow, but she ignored it in favor of staring at the empty message and faintly blinking cursor in the ominous white box. She racked her brain for something to say; something charming or witty or suave or _anything_ that would make her seem _not_ like the jittering ball of anxiousness that she truly was.

"Stop," she chided herself, eyes squeezing shut. "It's just a message. It's only a silly little message, not the end of the world, Camila."

So she jotted down words that looked somewhat intelligible and didn't make her seem too insane, proof reading it at least twenty separate times, then bit down on the nail of her left thumb while she hovered of the small blue send option.

She closed her eyes.

Click. Message sent.

Immediately, Camila wanted to backtrack and remove the message from its existence entirely, but it was too late. The pit of her stomach tightened and she sat up on the edge of the bed to bounce the heel of her foot against her carpet, hoping to shake her nerves. When that proved fitful, she snatched up her phone and walked to her bathroom, gently shutting the door behind her and leaning her back against it, sliding down to the floor.

Her phone buzzed again in her hands, and she glanced at its screen.

_2 New Messages_ , it read, _from Ally Hernandez._

Camila swiped her thumb along her screen and typed in her passcode, the texts popping up for her to read instantly.

_Did you do it?_ the first one read. _Call me!_ said the second.

She tapped Ally's name and held the phone up to her ear, listening to the dial tone drone on.

"Well?" Ally's chirpy voice filled her ear after three rings.

"I did it."

"Really? Mila, that's great!"

"Yeah, great," she groaned.

"You don't sound happy." Camila could picture the frown on her friend's face. "What's wrong?"

"What if she thinks I'm weird and doesn’t like me?" she blurted out. "I mean, I am weird – really weird. Like, honestly, I don't know how I even have friends _now_ , like I'm _that_ weird."

"Calm down, Camila, it's-"

"And what if she just deletes the message?" Camila continued. "Like, what if she sees that it's from me and goes ' _Oh, it's that girl who's always reblogging things from me, what a weirdo_ '." She paused to take a breath. "Ally, I'm freaking out."

A soft chuckle made its way through the phone line. "You’re not weirdo. And it's just a message; it's not the end of the world."

"That's what I was telling myself earlier!"

"Then just relax, Mila. It'll all work out. Has she messaged back yet?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I'm in the bathroom."

"Well go check!"

"I don't want to."

"Why?" Ally sounded confused. "I thought you wanted her to message you back."

"I do," Camila whined, "but then there's the possibility that she _has_ messaged me back and then after that I have to start a conversation and then I have to talk about myself if she asks about me, and I hate talking about myself – you know how much I hate it – and then I have to make it the whole time without me gushing about how cute I think she is."

"Mila," Ally's voice was stern, but gentle, "march your butt back into your room and go and check your inbox. Right now."

"But-"

"Do it."

With a heavy sigh, Camila pushed herself up from the ground and stalked back into her bedroom, placing herself carefully down on the edge of her mattress. She reached out and swiped her hand along her touch pad to bring her computer out of sleep mode, gulping down a large breath of air.

"Ally... oh my God, Ally.”

"What is it?"

"Oh my God, there's a red number one above the little envelope. _Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod_."

Ally laughed softly. "Is it from her?"

"I don't know. I haven't opened it yet."

"Well, open it, then!"

"I'm scared," Camila admitted. "What if it _is_ from her, and she really _does_ think I'm a weirdo?"

"Camila, open it. It'll be okay," her friend encouraged lightly.

So, after taking a few seconds to compose herself, she did.

The line was silent for some time and Ally began to wonder if something had gone wrong.

"Mila?" She called out. "Everything okay?"

Camila read and reread the words several times, a brilliant grin stretching across her lips, a tingling sensation rising up in her belly.

"Everything's great," she answered, still smiling, eyes scanning over the letters once again.

_Hi, Camila! This is going to sound so strange, but I was totally thinking about sending you a message today. I'm glad you beat me too it! :) Nice to finally talk to you, I'm Lauren!_


	2. Chapter 1

Camila was sitting in Chemistry class jotting down notes from her teacher’s, Mr. Canfield’s, lecture, when she felt her phone vibrate once from the pocket of her jeans. A smile tugged at her lips, but she kept her hand from reaching for the device by tightening it into a fist.

_A half hour_ , she mused, _and then I can message Lauren back. Only thirty more minutes._

She was quickly losing interest in the lesson – with what little of her attention she gave to it to begin with – and drifted off into thought of what Lauren wanted to talk to her about, since she usually doesn’t message Camila until she’s out of school.

Camila tapped her pen against her notebook and rested her chin in her hand, biting down softly on her bottom lip, huffing quietly in irritation as her teacher scribbled down a new equation onto the whiteboard. She copied down what he had written, but none of what he was explaining out loud was registering in her mind.

All she could think about was Lauren. And that message. But mostly about Lauren.

To her left, Ally was crunching up small bit of paper and flicking them at their friend Dinah’s back, who sat directly in front of Camila. The little balls were bouncing of her leather-clad shoulder and pooling along the floor around the legs of their desks. Camila caught Ally’s eye, and her friend grinned back at her, before flicking another paper ball towards Dinah, hitting her on the ear. The two covered their mouths to hide their wide smiles when Dinah turned around to scowl at them, mumbling something underneath her breath as she turned back around in her seat.

Camila gave Ally a thankful smile, glad that Ally had unknowingly distracted her mind from wandering off into thoughts of Lauren, and picked up her pen to scribble down a few more notes.

The bell rang loudly within the room and almost every student in class had practically jumped from their seats, pushing and shoving their way towards the door.

“Have a nice weekend,” Mr. Canfield called after his class, waving his hand disinterestedly at the dispersing crowd.

Ally had gotten hold of Camila and Dinah’s forearms, dragging them out of the room and down the hall to their lockers. Dinah was trying to tug her arm free, but Camila allowed herself to be lead through the bustling hallway, not wanting to have to navigate her way through the chaos on her own.

Once the trio arrived at their adjacent lockers, Ally turned to the two of them with a wide grin.

“What are you guys up to this weekend?” she asked, attention switching between Camila and Dinah.

“Dunno yet,” Dinah answered first, shrugging her shoulders. “Mom’ll probably have me babysitting one of the kids this weekend.” She rolled her eyes. “What about you, Mila?”

“Nothing much,” she sighed, leaning back against the lockers. “I’ll probably be talking to Lauren all weekend again.”

“Dog, again?” Dinah raised a brow. “You haven’t run out of things to talk about yet?”

Camila beamed. “Nope.”

“Word,” a smile tugged at Dinah’s lips before she turned her attention to Ally. “Wanna help babysit with me?”

“Gee, that sounds like fun,” Ally responded dryly.

Dinah pouted. “Please?”

The rest of the conversation faded away as Camila pulled her phone of from her pocket and opened up her screen. Her messaging app had a little red one above it, and she tapped the icon with her thumb.

_Lauren Jauregui has sent you a message._

Her heart fluttered and her smile widened as she tapped on the message and waited for it to load.

_Hey! Sorry, I know you’re in school right now, but I finally bought my new laptop, so that means I finally have a functional webcam and microphone! :) Message me when you get out of class!_

Camila swallowed. She had never heard Lauren’s voice, since the girl’s previous laptop had been malfunctioning for months before they had even started talking to one another. Camila was comfortable messaging Lauren and messaging only; she knew that if they were to talk face-to-face (or computer-to-computer) that she would run her mouth and never stop talking, because Lauren made her nervous. And when Camila was nervous, she didn’t know how to shut up.

“Shit,” she whispered, inhaling slowly through her nose.

While the part of her that was, to put it lightly, nervous as hell, she was also genuinely excited about hearing what Lauren sounded like for the first time.

_Is her voice high-pitched?_ She wondered. _Or maybe it’s at a lower octave. Is it husky? Is it sweet?_

Through her nerves, a small grin found its way onto her lips, not going unnoticed by Dinah, who had finished her persuasion against Ally. She nudged the shorter girl next to her, catching her attention, and nodded towards Camila, who was biting down bashfully on her lower lip.

“Mila?” Ally placed a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder, shaking her from her daydream. Camila blinked her eyes at her two friends, the tips of her ears burning.

“Sorry,” she muttered, and spun quickly around on her heels to open her locker, store and grab her necessary materials, and slammed the metal shut when she was finished – a little harder than she would have liked. “I’ll talk to you guys later.” Without so much as a glance back towards her friends, Camila was rushing out the front entrance of her school, practically skipping through the parking lot and towards her car.

Once inside, Camila typed out a message to send to Lauren.

_awesome, dude! that’s great! :D i’ll let you know when i get home._

She was sure she had violated numerous traffic laws as she sped back to her house, peeling down the streets and weaving between cars, with nothing on her mind other than the prospect of hearing Lauren’s voice.

 

* * *

 

Ignoring her mother’s calls to her, Camila raced up the stairs to her room, throwing her bag down on her desk chair and locking the door behind her, picking her laptop up from her bed and placing it on her lap once she sat down.

Crossing her legs, Camila opened up her Skype account and logged in, noting the familiar ping once it had accepted her information, leaning over to snag her headphones from off her side table. She sent Lauren another message, informing the girl how to download Skype and add her as a contact, and waited patiently. Lauren sent her back: _Okay!_

She grew restless as she waited, and decided to grab something to drink from downstairs while Lauren got herself set up. Trotting down the stairs and into the kitchen, her mother tapped her on the shoulder while Camila was filling up her glass with water.

“What was all that earlier?” her mother asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow. “You usually don’t ignore me when you get home from school.”

“Lo siento, Mami,” Camila dipped her chin slightly. “I was excited.”

“¿Por qué? Why were you excited?”

Camila swallowed. She had to tell her mother about her friendship with Lauren someday, but now didn’t seem like the best time.

“Just… you know, home from school, and stuff. It’s the weekend.”

Her mother studied her with hard eyes before shrugging moments later, the tension leaving Camila’s shoulders almost instantly.

“Do you have any plans?” Her mother implored, moving back to the countertop, continuing to cut a few peppers. “Are you going out with Dinah and Ally?”

“Dinah has to babysit, but she dragged Ally into suffering through it with her.” Camila chuckled. “I don’t want to look after kids all weekend.”

“You babysit Sofi all the time?”

“Yeah well, she’s different. She’s my sister.” Her phone vibrated once her in back pocket. Racking her brain for an excuse to leave, she blurted out, “I have to go upstairs and do… something on my computer.” She winced.

“Something?”

She coughed. “A school… something.”

Her mother looked up from her vegetables, smirking at Camila’s uncomfortable posture. “Niños,” she shook her head, waving Camila away. “Go. Have fun with your Internet.”

With a curt nod, Camila bounded back up the stairs, fishing her phone from her back pocket and opening up a message from Lauren.

_I’m all set up! Just waiting for you. :)_

Gulping down her water to relieve a sudden wave of dryness in her throat, Camila dropped back down on her mattress and moved to sit against the wall, pulling her laptop onto her crossed thighs and plugging her headphones into the available socket. She had a new notification on her side bar, and when clicking on it, found it to be a contact request from a _ljauregui_.

With quivering fingers, Camila added Lauren to her contacts and waited until it showed she was online before typing out a message.

_here i am_ , Camila wrote.

_There you are_ , Lauren wrote back.

Inhaling deeply, Camila relayed her racing thoughts to her friend. _i’m really nervous about hearing you voice, to be completely honest._

_Why?_

_i don’t know exactly. i’m anxious but also way way way curious to find out what you sound like._

_Well then, stop wasting time and call me!_

_okay._ She paused. _video or voice call?_

_Video! That way I can see you’re lovely face when we’re talking :)_

With a pounding heart, Camila gave herself one last, brief pep talk, before moving her cursor over to the green dial button.

“Here I go,” she whispered, and clicked down.

The dial tone rang through her headphones and echoed inside her brain. She picked at her nails to busy herself, twisting them together as the pit in her stomach tightened and released a thousand butterflies all at once.

Her breathing came to a sharp halt as the screen read “ _Lauren Jauregui is answering_ ”.

The screen faded for a second, and the next, Lauren’s face popped up on Camila’s monitor, a blinding smile plastered across the girl’s face.

“Hi, Camila,” Lauren managed through a grin, her accent tingling in Camila’s ears.

Choking on her words, Camila reached for her glass of water, only to discover that she had finished off the liquid earlier. She frowned and bit down on her bottom lip, a small whimper of disappointment escaping from her.

“You okay, love?” Lauren asked, turning Camila’s attention back to her screen, watching Lauren’s mouth twist in confusion. The girl tapped at her monitor, eyebrows knitting together. “Is this thing working? Can you hear me alright?”

Some unknown force was keeping Camila’s throat sealed tight, so she nodded in response.

“Oh,” Lauren breathed. “Good.” She smiled again, sending the butterflies – now turned bats – in Camila’s stomach up to her chest.

The few sentences that Lauren spoke had easily wooed Camila. Her accent was sickly sweet, with a light husk on certain syllables; it was matured, like someone easily in their twenties was speaking to her right now, instead of her 17-year-old Internet friend who lived in London.

“Camila?”

She still couldn’t find words to say. The _right_ words to say. She wanted to say so many things at once, but each sentence froze on the tip of her tongue and retreated back into her throat, forcing her to swallow them down.

“What? Is my voice that hideous?” Lauren prompted with a smirk.

“No no no!” Camila blurted out. “Your voice isn’t hideous! It’s beautiful! It’s amazing! It’s-” she caught herself complimenting the girl, her words blurring and slurring together as they rushed passed her lips, and her face flushed crimson when Lauren giggled at her antics.

“It’s what?” She smirked in response. “Go on, finish.”

“It’s… it’s wonderful,” Camila murmured.

“Not what you expected?”

“Better.” Camila looked up from her lap, gazing through the screen at Lauren’s piercing green eyes, and gave her a shy smile. “Much better.”


End file.
